Category Archives: For Sale

'Alice's Ecstasy'

Alice is the dog. She loves train trips. She loves train trips almost as much as swimming in circles in the dam with a stick in her mouth. And she really, really loves that!

The well dressed lady is inspired by a photo of Ada Rehan. Ada lived from 1859 to 1916. Does this make her Edwardian? She was an actress and she fed her retriever too many chocolates.

The picture is possibly for Camperdown’s upcoming Animalia exhibition… only how to get it there? If I frame it, the glass will get broken in the post won’t it? If I don’t frame it, how can it be displayed? I was going to send the artwork still in the book, so that it could be displayed open on a table. That didn’t work with this one, as I ended up collaging three pieces of paper together and they are no longer in the book!

I’ll have to make up my mind by tomorrow or I won’t get anything there in time.

Well! I made up my mind. I sent the Cornish Soliloquy instead. And Alice’s Ecstasy can be purchased in my Etsy shop here. Hooray!

Sporting Man’s Club

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Saturday night after the horse races, in the upstairs restaurant with a view of the bay. A soft warm breeze. Potted palm fronds gently moving. The mood of the crowd was jubilant. Voices and glasses were raised. High heels tottered.

I did two sketches as I waited for my meal. The first, a woman in an eye-catching hat; the second a woman having a quiet meal with a friend. She kept (more or less) still for longer than anyone I have drawn in ages!!

'Milly After the Races'

‘Milly After the Races’

Table 26

Table 26

Tom's Turmoil

You can buy Tom from Etsy here. (sold)

Scratchings

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Yesterday afternoon I locked the girls up to keep them nearby so that I could draw them. After they got over the idea that the paints, palette, brushes and water bowl might be edible, they carried on with their scratching, leaving me to do my own scratchings. Hilda, kept coming back to check though, in case I had just forgotten about the treat I was going to give them.

This altered book thing is a little like op-shopping… you go in hoping to find a little gem, and often, you do find it! In each case here, I drew the chicken first, and then found a few words in the text to compliment the picture. It seems to nearly always be there. Mysterious, happy chance.

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‘Charming’ felt tip, watercolour and gouache on vintage book page.
This is Vita, who is a Light Sussex Bantam, and thoroughly charming.

For sale on Etsy here.

'I have quite lost my appetite' felt tip, gouache and watercolour on vintage book page. This is Vita again. Vita is ALWAYS hungry.

‘I have quite lost my appetite’ felt tip, gouache and watercolour on vintage book page.
This is Vita again. Vita is ALWAYS hungry.

For sale on Etsy here.  (sold)

'Phoebe leaned forward' felt tip, watercolour and gouache on vintage book page. This is Hilda really. Phoebe is her stage name :-) Here she is demonstrating the Pekin 'forward tilt' which is a sign of good breeding and general loveliness on the show bench. Hilda rocks the 'forward tilt'.

‘Phoebe leaned forward’ felt tip, watercolour and gouache on vintage book page.
This is Hilda really. Phoebe is her stage name :-) Here she is demonstrating the Pekin ‘forward tilt’ which is a sign of good breeding and general loveliness on the show bench. Hilda rocks the ‘forward tilt’. She is a black birchen Pekin.

For Sale on Etsy here. (sold)

I did another of Storm, but it needs a little further tidying up… or saving… so I’ll leave it off for now.

The book, by the way, is Georgette Heyer’s ‘SYLVESTER or THE WICKED UNCLE’ 1957. The mind boggles.

The Geebung Polo Club

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I picked up this book of ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s verse in the op shop the other day. It is past its prime as a book, in that the pages are all coming adrift, perhaps expressing their wish to break away and start a new life on their own. In this I intend to help them.

Having lived around the corner from the pub of this name many years ago, I started by reading this drily catastrophic verse about an epic Polo battle. It is really very playful, and much shorter than I had imagined. After one reading, the pages came out of the book in my hands.

I took the hint and obliged…

Part A. They were long and wiry natives from the rugged mountain side, and the horse was never saddled that the Geebungs couldn't ride;

Part A.
They were long and wiry natives from the rugged mountain side,
And the horse was never saddled that the Geebungs couldn’t ride;

(sold)

Part B: Now my readers can imagine how the contest ebbed and flowed, When the Geebung boys got going it was time to clear the road; And the game was so terrific that ere half the time was gone A spectator's leg was broken - just from merely looking on.

Part B:
Now my readers can imagine how the contest ebbed and flowed,
When the Geebung boys got going it was time to clear the road;
And the game was so terrific that ere half the time was gone
A spectator’s leg was broken – just from merely looking on.

Admittedly, both parts of the poem were originally to appear on the same page. But due to a serendipitous error, wherein I found I had glued the first half of the poem on the right hand side of the page instead of the left… well, we now have two works of art. He he.

I’ve just begun to list artworks on Etsy. You can find my shop here. (Although there’s not much in it yet!)